First Thriving Communities Fund grants for 44 projects totalling more than £260,000 recommended for approval

The first grants under the new Thriving Communities Fund, investing in projects to benefit the health and wellbeing of West Suffolk residents, are to be decided next week.

West Suffolk Council’s Grant Working Party has recommended an investment of more than £260,000 into the work of 44 separate projects across West Suffolk run by community groups, charities and other voluntary organisations.

The council’s cabinet will decide on the recommendations when it meets next Tuesday.

The work the fund will help deliver is part of the council’s strategic priority for Thriving Communities.

Projects recommended for funding include initiatives to help people who are struggling with the cost of living, to build skills and confidence, to provide specialist emotional and practical support to people that have experienced different types of traumatic experiences, to provide youth activities to boost wellbeing, family support, and to help people who feel isolated or lonely. 

The Thriving Communities Fund, which launched in July, replaced the previous Community Chest scheme with a simpler, streamlined application process designed to encourage smaller community organisations to apply.

The fund is part of a package of close to £650,000 of community support for 2025-26 agreed by West Suffolk Council’s cabinet in May.

That package includes:

• £266,733 available under the Thriving Communities Fund for 2025-26;
• £200,000 a year for three years for Citizen’s Advice West Suffolk to support the council’s agenda to work with families and communities;
• £179,200 under the councillor locality budget scheme. Each of West Suffolk’s 64 councillors has a locality budget of £2,800 a year to support community initiatives that will benefit residents in their ward area with grants available from £100 and above.

The new Thriving Communities Fund made two levels of grants available:

• Community grants of between £2,000 and £8,000 for one-off projects by community groups, that will support residents in a small part of the district such as an estate or village.
• Larger grants of between £8,001 and £20,000 to fund work that will support residents across the whole of West Suffolk or big parts of the district such as a town. The council retained its discretion to take each application on its merits and grant a smaller amount.

The scheme was oversubscribed with 77 applications totalling close to £1m.

While 23 of those didn’t meet the scheme criteria, the council was able to help 13 of these instead secure a total of £58,639 community funding through money allocated to the council from the government under the Rural England Prosperity Fund.

The Grant Working Party met three times to look into the detail of the 54 applications which totalled close to £800,000.

Jon London, chair of the Grant Working Party, said: “As a cross-party group we have made recommendations that will hopefully deliver the most positive impact on the lives of our residents across our towns and villages in West Suffolk.

“We’ve recommended funding that will benefit the health and wellbeing of individuals and families, and people of all ages, providing everything from youth activities to addressing loneliness and rural isolation, specialist trauma support and help with the day-to-day struggles from the cost-of-living crisis.

“There’s so much great work by community groups, by charities and other voluntary organisations to help people in our communities and I look forward to the Cabinet discussion next week.”

Donna Higgins, the cabinet member for Families and Communities at West Suffolk Council, said: “These are the first applications under the new Thriving Communities Fund.

“It was designed to encourage more applications from community groups alongside those of charities, social enterprises and voluntary organisations and that has been illustrated in the volume of applications this year.

“I would like to thank councillor London and all of the members of the Grant Working Party for the many hours they have spent looking at the detail of these applications and I look forward to discussing their recommendations with cabinet colleagues next week.”

Applicants who won’t receive money from the Thriving Communities Fund or the full amount applied for, will be offered support including directing them to other grants within the council as well as other appropriate sources of local and national funding. 

The money recommended to the 44 organisations are:

The Lightwave community interest organisation, in Beck Row and Red Lodge, £1,489.

Still Good Food,. Bury St Edmunds, £5,085

Bury St Edmunds Rickshaw, £3,830.

Abbeycroft -Explore Outdoor, West Suffolk, £6,572.

BME Suffolk Support Group, Bury St Edmunds, £6,000.

Bridge Community Church, Bury St Edmunds, £10,000.

REACH Community Projects, Haverhill, £5,000.

Art Branches community interest company, West Suffolk, £6,000.

Haverhill Men’s Shed, £7,810

Project 21, West Suffolk, £5,000.

Second Chance Stroke Survivors, Bury St Edmunds, £2,000.

Steel Bones, West Suffolk, £6,320.

Abbeycroft – Stand Tall, West Suffolk, £6,000.

Bury Drop In, Bury St Edmunds, £16,000.

Catch 22 Suffolk, West Suffolk, £6,000.

Cruse Bereavement Support, West Suffolk, £1,000

EPIC Dad community interest company, West Suffolk, £4,500.

Families Together Suffolk, West Suffolk, £12,000.

Green Light Trust, West Suffolk, £3,000.

Home-Start in Suffolk, West Suffolk, £18,000.

Hope after Suicide Loss, West Suffolk, £1,000.

National Horseracing Museum, Newmarket, £4,500.

Oblique Arts, Newmarket, £2,703.

Our Special Friends, West Suffolk, £7,500.

PACT Suffolk, West Suffolk, £10,000.

Rural Coffee Caravan, West Suffolk, £5,000.

Sporting Memories Foundation, Bury St Edmunds, £4,500.

Suffolk Accident Rescue Service, West Suffolk, £5,000.

Suffolk Mind, West Suffolk, £5,748.

The Voluntary Network, Newmarket, £5,000.

Outreach Youth, Brandon, £1,000.

The Offshoot Foundation, West Suffolk, £3,000.

Game Anglia community interest company, West Suffolk, £2,000.

Haverhill Community Trust, Haverhill, £5,000.

Lyward Colley Trust community interest company, West Suffolk, £5,760.

Mildenhall Town Football Club, £5,000.

St Nicholas Hospice Care, West Suffolk, £10,936.

Suffolk Family Carers, West Suffolk, £8,000.

Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, £6,000.

Vogue Athletics community interest company, Newmarket, £5,000.

Alumah community interest organisation, Brandon, £8,000.

Brave Futures, West Suffolk, £3,000.

Compassion, West Suffolk, £6,480.

Restore Women’s Aid, West Suffolk, £15,000.